More Women in Management and Boards? A Discursive Study of the Development of the Danish Equality Policy and Gender Diversity in the Danish Business Community

Abstract

Drawing on a constructivist and discursive approach, this master thesis explores how discourses about equality and gender diversity in management and boards are expressed in the development of the equality policy of the state since 1965 and in the business community since 2020, and how this potentially affects the future work with equality and gender diversity in Danish companies. The qualitative case study is divided into four main parts: 1) a literature review of diversity, gender quotas and equality and gender diversity in Denmark, 2) an analysis of the development of the equality policy of the state since 1965 based on Michel Foucault’s discursive theory of power and empirical texts from the Danish parliament, government and ministries, 3) an analysis of the discourses about equality and gender diversity in the business community since 2020. This is based on Judith Butler’s performativity theory and text and selfconducted interviews from eight organizations, and 4) a discussion of how the discursive complexities affect the future work in Danish companies. The conclusion is first of all that the state constructs equality as a metaphor of a joint battle which the business community expresses through an action-creating and solution-oriented performativity. The state and the business community problematize the structural and cultural conditions that prevent women from achieving leading top positions, and society from achieving real equality by using economic, market-oriented and science confirmatory rationalities. This creates a paradox; when we are all fighting against our own culture and structure, we are actually fighting against ourselves. Another paradox is that everyone wants people to be hired for their qualifications and competences, not their gender, but is it actually possible to ignore gender when we unconsciously associate a leader with a man? The paradoxes underline the fact that the discursive landscape is characterized both by a strong will to act, and a paralysis of action, since there seems to be disagreement and uncertainty about what we actually can and must do to achieve equality and gender diversity in management and boards.